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Saturday, 30 January 2016

We support efforts by the High Negotiations Committee of the Syrian Opposition to negotiate a political settlement which will lead to a transitional governing body, and to human rights for all, rule of law, and democracy for Syria. Given the scale of documented atrocities carried out by the Assad regime, it follows that such a process must bring an end to regime rule.

We believe that the HNC which was named as representing the opposition in negotiations is widely considered inclusive.

We further support the demand by the High Negotiations Committee that the international community implement in full the humanitarian provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 2254 prior to negotiations.

The current Geneva III Conference has begun against a background of escalating Russian and regime bombardment of populated areas and civilian infrastructure, escalating starvation sieges, and ongoing mass detention and torture of political prisoners.

UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which set out the international mandate for these talks, called on the parties to “allow immediate, humanitarian assistance to reach all people in need, in particular in all besieged and hard-to-reach areas, release any arbitrarily detained persons, particularly women and children,” and demanded the full implementation of the long list of unenforced Security Council resolutions on Syria: 2139 (2014), 2165 (2014), 2191 (2014) and any other applicable resolutions.

Resolution 2254 further demanded “that all parties immediately cease any attacks against civilians and civilian objects as such, including attacks against medical facilities and personnel, and any indiscriminate use of weapons, including through shelling and aerial bombardment.”

These items are the express will of the Security Council and as such are not for negotiation between parties. The international community should never preside over a process where humanitarian relief is allowed to be used as a card in political negotiation.

As long as the international community fails to enforce its own resolutions, the Syrian people can have little faith in the peace process. If the international community can’t deliver baby milk to besieged areas, how can they be trusted to deliver free and fair elections?

For peace talks to succeed, the international community must implement the humanitarian provisions of its own UN Security Council Resolution 2254 in full.

Friday, 29 January 2016

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Syria will be holding two meetings in Parliament on 2 March in Committee Room 21.

At 2pm there will be a briefing from the NGO Goal on the humanitarian crisis in Syria. GOAL has been a leading humanitarian actor in Syria since 2012, with current projects benefitting over 2 million people.

At 3pm there will be a discussion led by the Syrian British Medical Society on the targeting of medical facilities in Syria and problems in accessing essential healthcare.

The meetings will be hosted by Roger Godsiff MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Syria

Tuesday, 26 January 2016

While many people in Britain have welcomed refugees with open arms, Syrians frequently continue to be treated with hostility, contempt and disrespect.

It emerged this month that asylum seekers in Middlesbrough felt under threat because the doors to their houses were distinctively painted red, leading to the launch of a Home Office investigation. Pressure from the asylum seekers and campaigners has now led to the doors being re-painted in a range of colours.

In Cardiff, properties owned by Clearsprings Ready Homes, a private company contracted by the UK Home Office, forced asylum seekers to wear coloured wristbands to show that they were entitled to food. We are pleased that this policy has been reversed after public pressure, and will remain vigilant against such discriminatory practices.

In 2014, it emerged that HSBC was freezing the bank accounts of Syrians for no other reason than their nationality. This had an extremely negative effect on refugees, who found their accounts frozen at a time when they were extremely vulnerable. Members of the British Syrian community continue to campaign against this discrimination.

The discriminatory treatment of refugees is not just a British problem. In Denmark, Switzerland and Germany, refugees now face having their property seized. In Bavaria refugees are only allowed to keep belongings worth less than £578, while in Baden-Württemberg the figure is as low as £270. These policies make it much more difficult for refugees to start new lives.

These discriminatory practices are unjustified and unjust.

The people of Syria have made clear their demand for dignity and freedom in their country, and it is tragic that they are faced with inhumane and illiberal treatment when they come to seek refuge in Europe.

The government constantly reminds us that it is important for refugees to integrate in the country that has offered them asylum. But this is a two-way process, and refugees cannot be expected to feel like a part of British society if they are not treated with the same respect, dignity and decency as British citizens. Integration and discrimination are mutually exclusive.

We call on the British government to exercise greater vigilance towards discrimination against refugees.

We call for an end, too, to the government’s negative rhetoric about refugees, which contributes to an unwelcoming atmosphere and legitimises discrimination.

We will continue to campaign for the rights and dignity of Syrian refugees. We will continue to make sure that the voices of Syrians are heard.

Tuesday, 19 January 2016

The brutal war being waged by the Syrian regime against its own people has placed schools and teachers in the front line. The Assad regime and its Russian backers have been pursuing a tactic of forced displacement of civilian populations, attacking civilian infrastructure, particularly schools.

A Save the Children report on education in Syria published in September 2015 found that 3 million Syrian children were not in education, that 25% of Syria's schools had been damaged or destroyed, and that over four hundred teaching staff had been killed. The majority of the destruction is caused by aerial bombardment. School enrolment in rebel held Aleppo has fallen to 6% as a result of these attacks. Targeting schools has been taking place for years.

On 29th September 2013, a technical school in Raqqa was bombed, killing sixteen people, ten of them students.

On 30th April 2014 one of the worst massacres took place at Ein Jalout school in Aleppo. It was displaying an exhibition of students’ artwork when it was bombed, killing twenty students, two teachers, and another adult.

Aftermath of the 30 April 2014 bombing of Ein Jalout school in Aleppo.

Attacks continue despite multiple UN resolutions calling for a halt to all attacks on civilian targets.

On 12th April 2015 missiles were again fired at a school in Aleppo, killing 5 children and 4 civilians.

On 3rd May 2015 barrel bombs were dropped on a school where students were sitting exams, killing four children, a teacher, and two other adults.

Since the Russian intervention, attacks have increased in frequency. In the past week, four schools have been bombed, killing and injuring dozens. On January 10th a Russian airstrike targeted a school in the town on Ain Jara in Aleppo, killing twelve children and three adults.

These attacks violate international humanitarian law, and specifically violate UN Security Council Resolution 2139 which was passed unanimously by the UN Security Council in February 2014, and which demanded an end to all attacks against civilians, in particular an end to aerial bombardment of populated areas.

The regime and Russia must not be allowed to bombs schools and kill students and teachers with impunity. We are calling on all teaching and education organisations, and teacher unions, to condemn these attacks and send messages of solidarity to Syria’s teachers and students who are trying to maintain education services in the middle of the brutal conflict.

Please see the draft motion below.

Schools also need material support. The Syrian grassroots campaign group Kesh Malek (Checkmate) is running a programme to twin schools in Aleppo with schools in other countries. You can access information about the twinning programme through the following links:

Draft Motion
This association notes that Syrian children and school staff are being targeted in air attacks by the Assad dictatorship and its Russian backers, and that very many pupils and teachers have been murdered or maimed in the ongoing bombing.

A Save the Children report on education in Syria found 3 million Syrian children were not in education, 25% of Syria's schools had been damaged or destroyed, and over four hundred teaching staff had been killed. The majority of the destruction is caused by aerial bombardment. School enrolment in Aleppo has fallen to 6% as a result of these attacks.

More children are dying as they try to flee to safety as refugees and millions of Syrian children of school age are experiencing the most extreme forms of psychological trauma.

This association condemns the targeting of populated areas and the bombing of schools. We extend our solidarity to everyone working to provide a normal education to children in Syria, and to those students who are refusing to serve in Assad’s army or Daesh.

We encourage school union groups to establish direct links and send material support such as pens, books and other equipment to schools in Syria through organisations like Kesh Malek which supervises and monitors nine schools in the liberated areas of Aleppo City, providing 3,330 pupils with education.

Saturday, 16 January 2016

January 16th was a global day of action against the starvation sieges being perpetrated in Syria by the Assad regime. Rallies and protests were held around the world to demand action from the international community.

In Britain, rallies were held in Manchester, Oxford, and London by Syrian and British activists to demand action from the British government to break the sieges.

Madaya, the focus of most international media attention, has now received two aid convoys, but without the lifting of the siege, this food aid will only last some weeks and people will be reduced to starvation once again.

And the aid convoys to Madaya provide no relief to the over one million Syrians trapped in the other 51 sieges across Syria. An estimated four hundred thousands are at immediate risk of starvation and malnutrition. But these sieges haven’t received the same media attention as Madaya.

In Deir Ezzour, 200,000 civilians are trapped in civilian areas between the Assad regime and ISIS front lines. Over 200,000 civilians are surrounded in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus, to which no aid has been delivered since 2013.

Syrian community groups are calling on the British government to begin air drops of food and medical aid to besieged areas in order to provide some immediate relief to civilians, and to pressure the Assad regime to lift the starvation sieges.

Friday, 15 January 2016

On Monday, the first UN aid convoys arrived to Madaya to deliver urgently needed aid to the town’s 42,000 residents. The aid came after a months-long siege enforced by Syrian regime forces. As aid was delivered, Syrians warned that the piecemeal delivery of humanitarian assistance would not be enough to stop the ongoing starvation of the one million Syrians living in besieged areas, and appealed to the international community to break the sieges across Syria—through airdrops if necessary:

“The piecemeal delivery of aid to Madaya will not stop the starvation of Syrian civilians. All Syrians in besieged areas need regular, unimpeded access to humanitarian aid, and they need it now. Any further delays or obstructions by any party to the conflict will only cost more innocent lives and condemn more children to starvation. But right now, there are no assurances that residents of Madaya—or any of 52 communities currently under siege—will have sustained access to the food, water and medical care they need.

“No one should live in fear of starvation, but this is the reality for roughly one million Syrians who are trapped in areas under siege. Deprived of basic food staples like flour and bread, families are resorting to eating leaves, rodents and insects. Many feel they are being abandoned—having been left behind to suffer, starve, and die.

“The suffering in Syria’s besieged areas is entirely preventable. The use of starvation as a method of warfare is a war crime. The Security Council has repeatedly prohibited the use of siege tactics by all parties to the Syrian conflict and authorised the United Nations to deliver humanitarian aid across conflict lines—irrespective of Syrian regime consent. But in too many places, the UN continues to wait for permissions and authorisations that it already has. In so doing it, it gives the Syrian regime the power to determine life and death in besieged communities. This is a power no government should rightfully have.

“All Syrians deserve food, water and medical care. If any party to the Syrian conflict denies such assistance, the UN should take steps to deliver it regardless. If the UN can’t provide the assistance Syrians need, we appeal to Member States to carry out airdrops to bring aid to those who need it and to break the sieges inside Syria. In some cases, this may be the only way to help those who are starving and ensure that more don’t die.”

The Syrian people need your support. Having suffered massacres, torture and brutal war, they are now being murdered through starvation. The Assad regime is enforcing starvation sieges on towns and cities across Syria. These sieges are part of the regime's “Kneel or Starve” campaign, ongoing since 2013, aimed at forcing rebellious towns and districts to surrender. Many refuse to do so, knowing the horror that awaits them if the regime reimposes control. So their suffering continues.

It does not have to be like this. Those of us in the West, in Europe and America, can pressure our governments to act to break the sieges and protect civilians from starvation. Many of these governments are currently bombing ISIS in Syria. We are calling on the British governments to use its air power to drop food not bombs: To use their planes to break the starvation sieges with food aid, to relieve the suffering of the residents, and to save lives.

The international publicity surrounding the siege of Madaya has forced the Assad regime to allow aid in to the town for the first time in sixth months. This shows what public protest and pressure can do. But the aid that has reached Madaya will only last some weeks, and very many more areas are also under siege.

We call on you to support the campaign to break the sieges, support the call for the UK government to airdrop aid to all besieged towns, and defeat the regime's attempts to starve the population into submission.

Please sign and circulate the petition and attached graphics, and urge the British government to act to protect civilians.

Since morning hours the city has witnessed barrel bomb attacks targeting the city’s southern frontline, and similarly attacks from Shilka trucks targeting residential areas. This led to Assad’s forces, fortified by heavy artillery and tanks, making numerous attempts to advance and take over the frontline, but all attempts were in vain due to the heroic defence by the Free Army which led to causing losses whilst the Shilka vehicles continued to target residential areas until the late hours of this evening.

The humanitarian situation

Humanitarian disaster is about to befall 45,000 civilians, including children, women, the elderly, for the 19th consecutive day.

The Assad forces continue to flex their control by closing the only crossing to the city and denying entry or exit and by denying the entry any relief or humanitarian aid, worsening the humanitarian situation faced by residents. Most of those remaining in the city have not enough to feed their children.

As the humanitarian situation is worsening, there are hundreds of cases of children and the elderly with chronic diseases due to malnutrition and its effects, and also the loss of urgently required medicines.

Every day the siege continues the situation deteriorates further and today marked the death of Saeed Carbouge (15) a special needs child, due to the reduced availability of required medicine and malnutrition and the Assad forces preventing his family from taking him elsewhere, raising the tally of martyrs of the siege up to four today: three children and a 25 year old woman. The health of all of them had deteriorated, and the families were not allowed to take them outside the city to receive treatment.

The medical situation

The medical staff in the city have announced a dire and catastrophic situation due to the loss of important and urgent medical supplies and equipment in the face of increasing numbers of elderly and paediatric patients, and of injuries from the attacks. Their medical situation is worsened by malnutrition and the cut off of specialised medical supplies for their recovery.

Every day dozens of cases visit the centre but with no chance of receiving treatment, and so the siege is about to claim hundreds of children and elderly people by preventing them from leaving the city to get treatment.

Due to the compounding of hardship, the medical staff of the city have asked global humanitarian and medical organisations and the international community to stand up to their full responsibility to stop this punishment, and to work immediately to find ways of bringing in urgently needed medical supplies as fast as possible.

Tuesday, 12 January 2016

Above is a video appeal to support besieged civilians in Syria, giving three ways people in the UK can help break the sieges.

Firstly, ask for support for the petition calling on the UK government to begin air drops. Even though Madaya has received temporary respite, the amount of aid is limited, with further road deliveries currently dependent on the whim of the regime. And beyond Madaya, many other areas are also under siege, with civilians suffering greatly.

Air drops are not a long term solution, but are urgently needed now as an emergency measure to bring relief. In 2015, only 10% of UN aid access requests to the regime were granted and delivered. The UK government needs to stop playing Assad’s game. Air drops can break the regime’s control of aid, break the sieges, and bolster efforts to bring peace.

Secondly, members of the Syrian community in London have called a protest for Saturday 16 January, at 2pm in Trafalgar Square.

The Facebook event page is here: Drop Food Not Bombs. Please come and show your support. If you can’t come to London on the day, please try to organise your own protest, or record your own video and share on the event page, or on Twitter, or in the comments section here.

Finally, please write to your MP asking them to support the call for air drops, and to help put civilian protection at the centre of the UK’s Syria policy.

Local Council of Daraya City Statement regarding the state of siege in the city and the dire need for humanitarian aid

For over three years, the city of Daraya has been subjected to a brutal assault by the Assad regime’s military forces and sectarian militias, led by Hezbollah, who have been supported politically, and recently militarily, by Russia. The military campaign used all types of weapons, including internationally banned weapons such as Sarin Gas, barrel bombs, and cluster bombs. As a result, thousands of civilians were killed and injured. The Assad regime continues to impose this genocidal siege to the city’s 12 thousand civilians, depriving them of any form of humanitarian aid. Even worse is the daily bombing by the barrel bombs. During 2015, the total number of barrel bombs dropped on the city was 3,430 barrels.

The local council of Daraya city would like to point out that it has been in constant contact with the United Nations and the Office of the UN envoy Staffan de Mistura for a long time, but none of its appeals for humanitarian aid have been met. The Council would like to draw attention to the suffering of the city’s inhabitants caused by siege, hunger and shelling. It would also like to cite UN Security Council resolution No. 2165 issued on July 14, 2014, which authorises the delivery of humanitarian aid without requiring approval from the Syrian regime. We reiterate our readiness to protect the delegations of the United Nations and Relief agencies within the city of Daraya, and facilitate their work from the moment they enter the city and until they leave.
Local Council of Daraya City
Daraya,
January 10, 2016

The eyes of the international media have been focused for the past few days on the plight of the 40,000 starving civilians in the besieged town on Madaya. We are relieved that humanitarian aid and medical supplies are, finally, getting through to the town, and we look forward to further aid deliveries in the coming few days.

However, we wish to remind the international community that tragic situation in Madaya is not unique. There are vast numbers of civilians who are still under starvation siege throughout Syria, including several suburbs of the Capital, Damascus. Whole communities all over the Country have been deprived of food, clean water, medical supplies and heating fuel for several months, even years. Without the dedicated work of courageous volunteers and aid workers, who put their very lives at great risk smuggling in food and medical supplies, the besieged communities would not have had the slightest chance of survival.

Furthermore, the starvation siege affecting Madaya, and many other Syrian towns and communities, is not in any way resolved. The supplies that have made it through the siege will barely last for one month, and are not a long-term solution.

The Syrian British Medical Society would urge Her Majesty’s Government, the international community, and the international medical relief organizations, to condemn in the strongest possible terms the use of food as a weapon of war, and to exert pressure on all parties to left the starvation siege throughout Syria.

The Syrian British Medical Society

11th January 2016

Editors’ Notes:

The Syrian British Medical Society was established in 2007, as a forum for healthcare professionals of Syrian descent working in the UK. It is a non-profit, non-political organization that aims at promoting the highest professional and ethical standards amongst British-Syrian Healthcare Professionals, and the creation and promotion of academic and professional links with the Healthcare Profession in Syria and related organizations worldwide. Since the start of the uprising in Syria in 2011, the SBMS has redirected most of its activities towards helping the devastated healthcare sector in Syria.

The images and stories from besieged Madaya in Syria are truly shocking.

According to reports, in the past month alone 31 civilians have died in Madaya as a result of
starvation or attempted escape, while the UN estimates that 400,000 remain besieged across
the country.

We find it astonishing that so little has been done by the international community to break
these sieges when life-saving medical and food aid are often only minutes away.

The UK played a critical role in negotiating several Security Council resolutions authorising
UN agencies to deliver aid across conflict lines and break these sieges. To date, however, far
too little has been done to challenge the Assad regime’s unacceptable veto over aid
distribution to these areas. Though welcome, the agreement for aid to get into Madaya,
reached by the UN on Thursday, may prove to be yet another empty gesture, and does not
change the pattern of besiegement across Syria.

Even in Deir Ezzor, an area of 200,000 under siege by ISIS, it is the Syrian regime that is
refusing the UN access to the airport which could be used to alleviate the suffering of the local
population.

The Government rightly takes pride in being the second largest bilateral donor to the UN Syria
appeal. But there is little point in contributing significant amounts of aid if we are not doing
enough to make sure it reaches those who need it most.

We must also not allow international aid to become a political tool in the Syrian conflict. It is
unacceptable that aid is being distributed in areas under regime control but we are allowing
the regime to deny distribution to other areas.

Successive Security Council resolutions state: “United Nations humanitarian agencies and
their implementing partners are authorised to use routes across conflict lines”, so why are
they not exercising this authority?

We urge you to push the UN, in particular the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs, to be far bolder in its aid delivery and stop asking unnecessary permission from the
Syrian government.

In the case that the UN continues to be denied access to these besieged areas by the Assad
regime, the UK should strongly consider airdropping aid to those communities at risk of
starvation. In some of these areas, the RAF is already flying anti-ISIS missions, and if
necessary this is something we should press our European partners to support.

Like the airdrops by the US in 2014 to the Yazidis in Iraq, and the leadership shown by the last
Conservative Government to save lives with similar action in Northern Iraq, there are
immediate steps we can take to stop more vulnerable people dying needlessly of hunger. We
cannot sit by and watch this happen.

Thursday, 7 January 2016

Syria Solidarity UK has been talking today to aid workers and doctors inside the besieged Syrian town of Madaya. This is their reaction to the announcement that the Syrian government is going to allow UN aid into Madaya.

First point: This aid alone will not solve the problem. The problem must be tackled from the root, which means not every now and then getting aid into the city on the conditions of the Syrian government, but th UN have to establish safe routes for food to come to the city on a regular basis without interference from the Syrian government or any groups.

Second, Madaya is not the only besieged community in Syria, there are other besieged areas, and if a solution is found for Madaya it should be used for other besieged communities to break the siege, and hunger should not be used as weapon against civilians.

Third, there is one rumour that aid has already arrived; this is not true. There is another rumour that aid will take two to six days to reach Madaya. If so at least three people at least will die for each day of delay. There is no guarantee of how long it will take for food to arrive, so this is not a solution. They need food right now.

Finally, if the UN actually manage to get food to Madaya, it will feed the population for a month and after a month the cycle will start all over again, and there will be people dying all over again. This is not a permanent solution, and the people of Madaya need a permanent solution.

Weeks after the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2254 to bring peace to Syria, it looks like yet another empty promise.

As a member of the International Syria Support Group, and as a Permanent Member of the Security Council, the United Kingdom has a particular responsibility to see that humanitarian assistance reaches “all people in need, in particular in all besieged and hard-to-reach areas” in accordance with Resolution 2254.

The UK has shown it can drop bombs in Syria: they are no help to the starving. Now it is time to show what good the UK and its armed forces can do for people inside Syria. Protect civilians: Begin RAF food aid drops to Madaya now.

APPG Friends of Syria: Evidence session on diplomacy
One of a series of events leading to a report on all aspects of UK policy on the Syrian crisis.Event details.
RSVP to: secretariat@thesyriacampaign.org
4pm–6pm, Committee Room 12, Palace of Westminster.

APPG Friends of Syria: Evidence session on military policy
One of a series of events leading to a report on all aspects of UK policy on the Syrian crisis.
RSVP to: secretariat@thesyriacampaign.org
4pm–6pm, room to be announced.

Tuesday, 5 January 2016

I was delighted to accept an invitation to attend a public meeting in December organised by Waltham Forest Stop the War and Stand Up to Racism, and an invitation to speak at a Stoke on Trent protest organised by Staffordshire Stop the War. I am anti-war myself and I believe in engaging with people. I wanted to speak to the conscience of the Stop the War members and try to convey the voices of victims of the war in Syria. I met many wonderful people, and I was touched by their compassion and eagerness to campaign against wars. I have so much respect for Stop the War’s protests against the Iraq invasion in 2003. I highly appreciate their recent campaign to welcome refugees.

I also have so much disappointment and disagreement regarding Stop the War’s position on Syria. I am aware that many members of Stop the War are perceiving the Syria war through the same lense as they saw the Iraq invasion in 2003, as ‘an unjust imperial war.’ This is one of the main reasons for the big clash between Stop the War and people supporting the Syrians’ struggle for freedom, dignity, and democracy. I will present my perspective about the Syrian revolution, which might be different to their perspective; it is always helpful to see the other side of the story. Acknowledging our differences can help us to find a common ground and to work together for a just cause. The Syria war is tragic and I am writing to the minds and hearts of peace-loving people to reflect, and to suggest things we can do to help.

Sunday, 3 January 2016

“Peacebuilding defines our future now” is a study of women’s peace activism in Syria by the Badael Foundation. On December 16th, Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh MP chaired an event organised by Syria Solidarity UK at Portcullis House to discuss how women civil society activists inside Syria are responding to the war. Speaking were Laila Alodaat, Crisis Response Programme Manager at the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and Raheb Alwany, a researcher at Badael and a co-author of the report.

The Syrian conflict began with violence against peaceful civilian protesters, and as targeting of the civilian population has continued to be central to how the war is fought, so women have suffered particular disproportionate effects of that violence. This event however went beyond describing how women are victims of the conflict to discussing women’s contributions towards resolving it, and as a consequence arguing for the importance of including women in the current negotiations.

In introducing the event, Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh cited her own recent experience of visiting a UNHCR camp in Gaziantep, Turkey, near the Syrian border, to confirm the key role of women in helping those fleeing the conflict: “That involves very much psychological support also, because of what women have had to experience, and indeed what their children have had to look at.”

Laila Alodaat talked of how the Syrian conflict has been one of the most violent in recent times, and also the best documented. We know the violations that are happening, and we have the chance to analyse and to understand how we can impact them.

Unfortunately this information is not being transformed into wider understanding around the world: “Everybody feels that there must be something to be done but we don’t know what it is. What we try to do here, and what the report by Badael has done, is to give examples of what actually can be done, and how this information, the documentation that people literally lost their lives to make possible, can be made use of.”

The physical impact of the conflict

Laila Alodaat described three areas where the conflict has a disproportionate impact on women, beginning with its physical impact, on which she gave two examples.

A February 2015 report by Physicians for Human Rights said that in the year prior to that the Assad regime had attacked 83 health facilities in areas outside of regime control where health care is almost non-existent:

“And although this is not the worst that has happened to civilians in Syria, this in particular has an enormous impact on women, because we found in a report by my own organisation, I work for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom… what we found around the conflict in Iraq and the conflict in Syria is that 80% of women who died during pregnancy or delivery, their death could have been prevented if they had any access to health care, which the way this conflict is being conducted is actively preventing them from.

“These women will die in their homes giving birth and we will never hear of them as casualties of the conflict.”